Above: Former Denning Recycling Manager Ed Mues in happier times. Photo courtesy of Denning Concerned Citizens.
To hear his supporters tell it, Ed Mues was more than a trash man. Mues, recently dismissed by the Denning town board from his job as manager of the town transfer station, was a one-man social hub, friendly neighborhood recycling guru, and town welcome wagon.
"Ed Mues is the George Bailey of Denning," wrote local resident John Kuhner, on an online petition supporting Mues.
But every George Bailey must have his Henry Potter -- and Mues seems to have found his nemesis in Republican town supervisor Bill Bruning.
Last August, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed against the town and its five board members in federal court on February 8, Mues attracted Bruning's ire when he sent an email to a few dozen local residents urging someone to step forward and run for supervisor on the Democratic ticket. An excerpt:
There must be someone who can run for the position for the simple reason that if the current supervisor, Bill Bruning, runs unopposed, then the Town of Denning appears to all to be deeply flawed. No matter what the office, no one should run unopposed. It is un-American and unhealthy for the collective psyche of our town.
It doesn't matter that Bill gets elected. He is a very good fiscal manager, and over all, a good Town Supervisor. If someone runs against him, then and only then, will we have autonomy.
According to Mues's complaint, Bruning approached him at work the following Monday, warning him to stay out of town politics.
The complaint, embedded in full below, lays out Mues's account of what happened next. But this much is indisputable: Last November, shortly after the town elections, the town board passed a resolution in closed session, changing the status of Mues's job as Town Recycling Manager from a hired to an appointed position.
In January -- again, in a closed session -- the town board declined to reappoint Mues, and voted unanimously to appoint Scott Mickelson to the job.
Robert Isseks, one of the attorneys who is representing Mues, says that the board's actions are a violation of Mues's right to free speech.
"It doesn't matter that it's a small town," said Isseks. "It's important that public officials respect the First Amendment. That's why this case is important. It's apparent that these public officials have just decided to ignore free speech and association rights."
In January, Denning resident Jack Cox started a blog to chronicle the ongoing saga: The Denning Denizen.
Cox also started an online petition to get Mues reinstated. So far, he says, it has 144 signatures from Denning residents -- roughly a third of the town's voting-age population -- and a handful of signatures from supporters in other towns.
"The comments on the petition and the blog say it all, about how loved he was," said Cox.
Reached by telephone, Bruning declined to comment on the lawsuit.
According to the minutes from a special town meeting held on February 21 to discuss the lawsuit, Bruning told a questioner that the town's insurance would cover the cost of the lawsuit.
Mues's legal complaint:
